Raga Ruminations - Begada

The Begada varnam Intha Chalamu by Veena Kuppayyar is one of the best varnams of the genre. Begada is one raga that needs a certain level of dexterity to bring out the nuances. The varnam is a important lesson for students just for the muktayi and chittaswara patterns following the charanam. Shankari Neeve, a composition of Subbarayar Shastri is a popular piece in raga Begada. Listen to this Begada, the raga and the song by Voleti Venkateshwarulu, what I feel is one of the best renditions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wYZH_8dDjQ Here's another gem in this raga - Nadopasana, the magnum opus of Tyagaraja rendered by Sanjay Subrahmanyam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eqcm1jm9aU Kadaikkan Vaithannai Aalamma, the Tamil composition of Ramaswamy Sivan is one of my personal favourites. Here is an old Doordarshan TV recording of a concert by KV Narayanaswamy where he begins with this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYcSPdHg4zw There is no Hindustani equivalent to raga Begada though the rare raag Hem Kalyan sounds closest to this scale. Here is a rendition of raag Hem Kalyan by Ustad Amir Khan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlfWy9yA020 Begada has such a strong classical structure that while making the transition to the silver screen the raga doesn't give much scope for innovations within the framework for music composers . Here is a Malayalam song Ambala Parambile from an old movie Ningal Enna Communistakki by singer Jesudas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gneXqEimUrI For those who want details, Begada is a janya or a derivative of the 29th Mela raga Shankarabharanam and the scale reads as follows. SG3R2G3M1PD2PS SN32DPM1G3R2S